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Hello friends,
I visited Barcelona a few years ago. I have never been to Spain before or since, but I hope to visit this wonderful country again soon.
I took several photos of some of the wonderful architectural sights back then. Here, I upload two photos of Casa Mila—La Pedrera, constructed by the incomparable Antoni Gaudí.
Unfortunately, it proved very difficult to photograph the buildings in full height due to many obstacles—decorative trees, many street lamps, traffic lights, advertisements, and whatnot. I played around a lot to remove many of these destructive elements, and the result is the second photo.
What's your opinion, could it be further improved?
Canon EOS 70D
EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 USM
1/125 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100, 17 mm
Thanks a lot
Hey Jivko,
I've never been to Barcelona, but I can understand her longing for the fantastic buildings. I often wonder whether the whole building really needs to be visible in order to show an aesthetic photo. The tourists and the coach quickly degrade the photo to a snapshot.
I have simply emphasised what I like about your photo: the building façade, the trees, the clouds and the iron balcony decorations. Then I cropped it to 16:9.
I like it, see for yourself how it fits into your memory. It's just a suggestion.
LG UTe
Hey Jivko,
I've never been to Barcelona, but I can understand her longing for the fantastic buildings. I often wonder whether the whole building really needs to be visible in order to show an aesthetic photo. The tourists and the coach quickly degrade the photo to a snapshot.
I have simply emphasised what I like about your photo: the building façade, the trees, the clouds and the iron balcony decorations. Then I cropped it to 16:9.
I like it, see for yourself how it fits into your memory. It's just a suggestion.
LG UTe
Dear Ute,
thank you very much for your comment. I had not thought of such an option at all! You're right, with all those pedestrians it looks more like street photography. I'll think about how to re-edit the photo.
Thanks a lot
Jivko
Dear Jivko Nakev ,
You did a good job removing elements, but not so great in taking the photograph regarding light. You have harsh light on the (rounded) corners, the rest is in shadow. Even if light was more even, like on an overcast day or early / late at a day, it would still remain rather a vacation memory than fine art in my view. Okay, I'm more into abstracts, shoot parts of a building representing the essence. In case of Gaudi it's pretty clear what that means, curves, ornaments, shapes. La Pedrera is most famous for its roof, like a favorite photographer of mine here on 1x, Hanaa Turkistani shot: https://1x.com/photo/1754726.
This also requires a smooth light, you don't need hard shadows in this. Which is a challenge, given you can only shoot in opening hours and BCN is mostly sunny.
However, light is the foundation of every photograph and you did not pick a good situation. Sunday, early in the morning is the best occasion in Spain, citizens are rather late up in southern Europe.
I considered shooting the roof when I was in Barcelona, but it was in summer. Eraly light was too early and it lasted too long to shoot without shadows, we only had sunny days. So I preferred one of Gaudi's first works, Casa Vicens, in the wonderful district called El Farró. The staircase was my primary target, it's in my portfolio.
If you have obstacles in the way when shooting, like I had in this shot: https://1x.com/photo/2118889/, there is a trick I can share. Nowadays, Photoshop's AI is quite capable in removing unwanted subjects, like lamp posts, stoplights, wires, etc. But when I shot that, there was no built-in AI yet. So I took frames from several positions, to have the parts covered by the many unwanted elements. The positions were often just one meter apart, and with a long lens you won't notice the slightly different angles. Like with stacked macros, you can make your life easier if you shoot in manual mode, so the light / exposure / aperture remains constant. Photoshop might fail auto-aligning the shots on top of each other, but it's doable, quite easily.
Best regards,
Mike
Dear Jivko Nakev ,
You did a good job removing elements, but not so great in taking the photograph regarding light. You have harsh light on the (rounded) corners, the rest is in shadow. Even if light was more even, like on an overcast day or early / late at a day, it would still remain rather a vacation memory than fine art in my view. Okay, I'm more into abstracts, shoot parts of a building representing the essence. In case of Gaudi it's pretty clear what that means, curves, ornaments, shapes. La Pedrera is most famous for its roof, like a favorite photographer of mine here on 1x, Hanaa Turkistani shot: https://1x.com/photo/1754726.
This also requires a smooth light, you don't need hard shadows in this. Which is a challenge, given you can only shoot in opening hours and BCN is mostly sunny.
However, light is the foundation of every photograph and you did not pick a good situation. Sunday, early in the morning is the best occasion in Spain, citizens are rather late up in southern Europe.
I considered shooting the roof when I was in Barcelona, but it was in summer. Eraly light was too early and it lasted too long to shoot without shadows, we only had sunny days. So I preferred one of Gaudi's first works, Casa Vicens, in the wonderful district called El Farró. The staircase was my primary target, it's in my portfolio.
If you have obstacles in the way when shooting, like I had in this shot: https://1x.com/photo/2118889/, there is a trick I can share. Nowadays, Photoshop's AI is quite capable in removing unwanted subjects, like lamp posts, stoplights, wires, etc. But when I shot that, there was no built-in AI yet. So I took frames from several positions, to have the parts covered by the many unwanted elements. The positions were often just one meter apart, and with a long lens you won't notice the slightly different angles. Like with stacked macros, you can make your life easier if you shoot in manual mode, so the light / exposure / aperture remains constant. Photoshop might fail auto-aligning the shots on top of each other, but it's doable, quite easily.
Best regards,
Mike
Hi Mike, your comment is extremely helpful to me.
I looked at your gallery. If I just say I like it, I'd be lying to you. It is wonderful! Obviously, this is not my genre of photography, I have a completely different approach related to wildlife, which is my main activity as a photographer.
And I did very well to upload my photo for discussion. It was really taken for a keepsake, like all the others taken in urban environments. The city confuses me, I just point the camera and shoot without having a preconceived idea of composition, lighting, or perspective. Then I look at the photos and think, could any photo be more than a memory shot?
Not, or quite by accident.
This is not a disappointment to me. I am committed to my development as a photographer in my field of shooting.
Thanks again and I wish everyone a very happy New Year 2025.
Jivko
Hello Jivko Nakev,
Thank you for the compliment. All photography needs preparation and planning, or like in your genre, patience. We freeze moments when pressing the trigger. If the results should look impressive, the moment has to be. The good thing about photography is that you can always expand the range of genres, there are so many.
Things you learned for one genre give you a head start in others, the basics of perspective, composition, light as "source material" always remain the same, no matter if you wait for something to catch or create everything yourself, including the light.
You found the place to ask for recommendations, obviously :-)
Best regards,
Mike
